What Is Your Wealth Without Your Health? Inside the CapitalFit Med-Tech, Longevity & Wellness Expo

On June 6, the doors of ILUME Scottsdale opened to something that felt bigger than a conference. It felt like the start of a movement. The CapitalFit Med-Tech Devices, Longevity and Wellness Expo brought together physicians, founders, investors, and curious attendees under one roof for a single, unifying idea: that the future of health belongs to the people who refuse to settle for "there's nothing more we can do."

For me, this day was personal. I opened the event the only way I knew how to — by telling the truth about why I do this work at all.

It Started With My Parents

I stood in front of the room and talked about my mother and my father, about cancer, about diagnosis and treatment, and about what it does to a family when the answers run out. That story is the engine behind everything CapitalFit is building. I don't want anyone facing a life-threatening diagnosis to feel the way our family felt — frustrated, in the dark, and unsure of where to turn. That's my "why," and it's why I'm so passionate about gathering the right people in one place.

Then I passed the microphone.

The Morning: Shock Value, Science, and Big Ideas

Dr. Rick Jacoby set the tone with a jolt of reality. Author of Sugar Crush and Unglued — with his upcoming book Terminal Zone on the way — Dr. Jacoby walked the audience through what sugar actually does to the body. As a surgeon who operates on diabetic neuropathy and performs intricate foot surgery using 20x magnifying goggles, he sees the damage up close in a way most of us never will. He brought the shock value, and the room felt it.

From there, master of ceremonies Bob Hellman, owner of LiveWell MD, took the helm and kept the energy moving from speaker to speaker.

Bob introduced Dr. Peymon Ghazi, founder of Malcova, whose CT mammogram technology is built to make mammogram procedures far more accurate and far easier for women — a leap forward in an area of medicine that's long overdue for one.

Next, Sivakumar Palaniswamy of HYDRAWAV had the audience leaning in. His technology — now being used in the NFL — is designed to reduce inflammation and restore healthy flow to an injured area, using a combination of light, and hot and cold therapy. He grounded it in the science of why the body runs hot and cold at different times of day, and how that rhythm can be used to the body's advantage.

The conversation turned to data with MedWatch Technologies. Dr. Christian and Chief Commercialization Officer Andreas Tovar unveiled the new P7 version of their biosensor, built to monitor glucose levels and spikes in real time — and to feed into an agentic AI platform at metabolicWise.com. Founder Neil Gyte shared how his time at Google Maps shaped his vision for metabolicWise: a platform that doesn't just hand you data, but maps the road to the root cause and points you toward the right destination — your health. As Neil put it, the goal is to guide you down the right path so you actually arrive at wellness.

Dr. Derek Banyard, a board-certified plastic surgeon, presented Sayenza and its tagline that stuck with the room: fat is the future. His fat-derived processing machine creates stem cells from a patient's own fat cells during a procedure — a fast, efficient way to turn a liposuction surgery into an opportunity to harvest and inject stem cells right then and there. He walked through working prototype images, his go-to-market strategy, and the very real potential for a strategic acquisition.

Then Steve Williamson took the stage for Zap Box, a device that disinfects a stethoscope in roughly three seconds. Drawing on 30 years leading companies in the medical space, Steve laid out a sharp go-to-market plan: use existing salesforces in medical devices and durable medical equipment to mount the sanitizer right beside the hand sanitizer in hospitals and clinics across the country. His delivery was dynamic, and the acquisition upside was clear.

Rounding out the morning, Dr. Wong, Dr. Sharma, and Dr. Leathem, co-founders of Advanced Wellness and Pain, spoke about ketamine as a healing tool — for trauma, stress management, and PTSD — and shared that their clinic has served more than 14,000 patients. I got up to share my own experience with their modality and their beautiful Scottsdale clinic, which I described, honestly, as the Bentley of ketamine services.

A Break Worth Savoring

We paused for a lunch prepared by Chef Francesco Suglia of Tre Bicchieri, with his team — including Hana on hand to serve. It was the kind of meal that reminds you good food is part of good health, too.

After Lunch: The Building, the Legend, and the Roundtable

First up after lunch, Leo Divinski said a few words about the building itself — the architecture, the energy of the attendees, and the award-winning architect behind it all, Will Bruder, one of Arizona's most acclaimed contemporary architects. He welcomed anyone interested in leasing space to join the growing medical office community in what he called "Health Highway 101," an up-and-coming corridor of medical buildings, hospitals, and research centers — Mayo Clinic, Dignity Health, and many more.

Then we welcomed Mark Victor Hansen to the stage. He spoke candidly about his career — the ups, the downs, the successes, the failures, and the rebuild — and the extraordinary journey of speaking in over 80 countries to millions of listeners and selling more than 500 million books. His message was simple and powerful: write a book, tell your story — and he laid out a clear path for how to do it.

We closed the program with a roundtable, led by Bob Hellman. He asked the kind of questions that spark real conversation, including: if you were a young man back in the day, what would you tell yourself that you know now? Mark Victor Hansen carried much of the discussion, while Dr. James Kneller, cardiologist behind the Natural Cardiology Institute, spoke about his supplement line and how turmeric and beets can support cardiovascular health. Dr. Rick Jacoby chimed in on statins, cholesterol, and — of course — sugar.

The panel also brought serious business firepower. Nathan Bailey, a legend in the world of digital sales on the Amazon platform, shared hard-won lessons from building and scaling online. And Preston Weekes — Mark Victor Hansen's son-in-law and a business consulting and AI expert — spoke about solo entrepreneurship and how to use AI to scale and operate far more efficiently. His insights resonated so much that I plan to implement Preston's Business Force One, the all-in-one platform that handles digital marketing, CRM, email, event planning, website management, and so much more.

I had the honor of closing the day with a short message about what we'd all just been part of: the community, the connections, the information exchanged, and the chance to support these companies — to invest, to collaborate, to share ideas. The message was clear. Collectively, we can heal people, educate people, and make this a better place.

On the Floor: Devices, Demos, and Special Guests

Beyond the stage, the expo floor buzzed all day. Former senator and retired Air Force fighter pilot Martha McSally stopped by — with her golden retriever, Boomer — and spent time experiencing the devices on display. Among them: Nick Hool of Hoolest and his nerve-relaxing VeRelief technology, an electronic nerve-stimulation system designed to boost parasympathetic activation and help the body relax.

Jeff Deng hosted a wonderful booth for Peak Performance Peptides. The cofounders of HUMNBIRD, Nathan Bailey and Michael Gray, set up a beautiful display and lit banner. Ginny Fiscella represented BioActive Med, showcasing their new and highly effective facial peptides line alongside supplements, six-in-one mushrooms, pain creams, CBD products, methylene blue, peptides, and so much more. Also on hand: VITELIXIR, the Natural Cardiology Institute, SPAZZAZ bath salts and medical spa products beautifully displayed, an IV infusion company offering B12 energy shots, and AZBIO, represented by Dr. Dylan — along with Cynthia Pierce, ambassador and founder of Resolution Resource Group.

The People Who Made It Possible

An event like this doesn't happen on its own. My deepest thanks to Mimi Myers, Lauren Jacobsen, Cynthia Pierce, Bob Hellman, Ginny Fiscella, Olivia Klever of Stockdale Capital, and Chef Francesco Suglia of Tre Bicchieri. A special welcome, too, to the team from Canyon Angels — Grand Canyon University's Canyon Angels, the only student-led angel investment group of its kind, founded in 2015 by Timothy Kelley — and the Grand Canyon University students who helped greet attendees, made everyone feel at home, and showed genuine curiosity about the founders, several of whom they hope to bring to campus this fall for the Canyon Angels pitch events. Cynthia Pierce, who helped co-produce the event, is also an active mentor to these GCU students, many of whom were among those in attendance.

Thank you as well to Dorie Morales, publisher of Green Living Magazine, for her support, for the advertisement in the May issue, and for the upcoming issue that will summarize the event and build excitement for what's next.

What's Next — and Who We're Doing It For

This fall, we'll be back with an event focused on women's health, longevity, and mammogram technology. It will be held in honor of my late mother, Patricia Barnard — an X-ray technician, a singer in the 1950s, a mother of four, a tireless volunteer, and my greatest cheerleader. She always cheered me on. Now it's my turn to cheer her on, and to cheer on everyone facing life-threatening issues without answers, feeling frustrated, feeling like they have nowhere to turn.

That's what CapitalFit is for. We're building a collective of knowledgeable alternative healthcare professionals — providers, clinicians, health experts, MDs, PhDs, peptide experts, and stem cell practitioners — with the hope of delivering a better healthcare system for everyone. A thoughtful blend of homeopathic and natural solutions, grounded in the body's remarkable ability to heal itself when given the right environment: less inflammation, fewer glucose spikes, and a real, actionable path to wellness.

Because in the end, the question that frames everything we do is the same one I'll keep asking: What is your wealth without your health?

You can hear many of these speakers, founders, and practitioners share more on the CapitalFit Podcast — with plenty more conversations to come. Stay tuned.